Laboratory environments present a multitude of challenges for instrument design and the conducting of experiments and procedures. In particular, chemistry labs of various types often require specific and dedicated equipment for a variety of experiment setups. For example, some apparatus require the circulation of cooling fluid therein. Such equipment may include, but are not limited to, rotary evaporators, lasers, reflux condenser columns, distillation columns, condenser columns, etc. These types of equipment are commonly used in universities, research and development and government agencies worldwide.
Various techniques are known in the art for providing the necessary cooling to the foregoing equipment. For example, tap water may be directly used for cooling a device. Thus, in the instance of a condenser column, tap water flows through and within the column's outer jacket and is subsequently disposed of down a municipal sewer drain. This arrangement suffers from several drawbacks which include a large, wasteful use of a natural resource, i.e., water, potential flooding in a lab, poor temperature control and the elimination of sinks for other uses. Similarly, a building water cooling system may be present and used instead of conventional tap water. In like fashion, these systems, in addition to the aforementioned drawbacks, also suffer from several other drawbacks which can include water pressures at elevated or dangerous levels and temperatures which are too cool. The following calculations assist with understanding the sheer magnitude of the potential of the wasted natural resource. When using tap or chilled water as a source of cooling water, a single fume hood may consume a half (½) gallon of water per minute, which results in thirty (30) gallons per hour, seven hundred twenty (720) gallons per day and two hundred sixty-two thousand eight hundred (262,800) gallons per year. It should be appreciated that this is the potential water consumed from a single fume hood and many university and research laboratories include far more than a single fume hood. For example, a company performing extensive research and having one hundred (100) chemists could easily use five million two hundred thousand (5,200,000) gallons of water per year in support of its chemists. Furthermore, as in the instance of using a chilled water supply, high fluid pressures may be impractical for use with all laboratory equipment as some equipment may rupture when subjected to elevated pressures.
Further options for providing cooling fluid to a laboratory setup include using what are commonly referred to as circulating water baths and/or water-to-water heat exchangers. It should be appreciated that although some of these devices are referred to as “water baths,” it is common to use anti-freezing agents such as propylene or ethylene glycol within the circulating fluid when the required temperature range drops below the freezing point of water, i.e., 32° Fahrenheit or 0° Celsius. Water baths may be permanently installed in a particular location or may be moved from location to location as needed. This flexibility is sometimes desirable when demand for cooling fluid is low; however, if demand for cooling fluid is high, multiple water baths are necessary. Even though these baths provide this flexibility, they suffer from drawbacks such as being expensive, i.e., approximately three to eight thousand dollars per unit, they are large, noisy, provide too great of a flow rate and/or too much pressure. Additionally, such systems are not appropriate for placement within a fume hood as their size prohibits it and the corrosive environment within a fume hood will degrade device enclosures and internal components. Moreover, these devices are fixed in size, shape and usage, and therefore do not offer scaling up to larger sizes or ease of servicing.
As can be derived from the variety of devices and methods directed at providing cooling fluids to laboratory equipment, many means have been contemplated to accomplish the desired end, i.e., consistent and controllable flow of cooling fluid. Heretofore, tradeoffs between costs, resource consumption and flexibility were required. Thus, there is a long-felt need for an apparatus for providing cooling fluid which is decoupled from tap or chilled water sources to prevent flooding, which is small in size, scalable, movable, quiet and inexpensive. There is a further long-felt need for a laboratory fume hood comprising the foregoing apparatus for providing cooling fluid. There is also a long-felt need for a method of providing cooling fluid to a plurality of locations/devices using a common source of chilled water.